Posts Tagged ‘linux’

Earlier this year, we introduced the new standard for desktop linux machines. These machines are running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04). We still have some older debian machines that need to be upgraded to the newer build. If you haven’t already, you should try it out. A 32-bit build is available on darth.mcs.anl.gov, and a 64-bit build can be found on either octopus.mcs.anl.gov or octagon.mcs.anl.gov.Starting next week, we’re going to try to get any debian desktops upgraded to this build. If you have one of these on your desk, someone in systems will be contacting you to arrange a time for this to happen.However, in the interim, we’re going to be upgrading the machines below on the following schedule. If you have any data in the /sandbox on these machines, you are responsible for getting a copy — /sandbox directories are never backed up and are to be considered scratch space much like /tmp.

terra: Friday Oct 12th 5pm

smash: Friday Oct 12th 5pm

harley: Wednesday Oct 17th 5pm

shwinn: Wednesday Oct 17th 5pm

elephant: Thursday Oct 18th 5pm

crunch: Thursday Oct 18th 5pm

shakey: Friday Oct 19th 5pm

triumph: Friday Oct 19th 5pm

fuzzy: TBD

If you have any questions or concerns, let me know or send a note to systems@mcs.anl.gov. Thanks!

The machines listed below need a reboot to get an updated kernel as a security fix. We plan to reboot any affected machines that have not yet been rebooted at 5 PM on Friday, 9/28. If you can reboot prior to then at your convenience you won’t be affected by the 5PM reboot.Thanks!

Ken Raffenetti, our newest member of the group, has spent a significant amount of time developing and updating Hostbase. It’s now far more robust and more suited to the needs of the group for its administration tasks. However, we realize that our users appreciate this tool, especially its companion “hostinfo”.Fear not! Ken’s got you covered. Here’s the announcement, straight from the developer’s keyboard:

For those of you who use the “hostinfo” command from our MCS machines, you may have noticed a change on Wednesday. Our host data has been moved to a shiny new database and thus needed a new hostinfo tool to allow your queries. Simply typing “hostinfo” now prints a usage statement with some helpful tips on how to use the command line options. Typing “hostinfo –showfields” gets a listing of attributes for a host. Note that some attributes’ names may be different from the previous version. Query syntax remains largely unchanged. Bug reports or questions about usage should be sent to systems@mcs.anl.gov

We’d like to add that there’s a spiffy web tool you can use as well, as long as you’re onsite or on the VPN. Check out https://hostbase.mcs.anl.gov.We’re all really please with Ken’s work on this. Check it out and let us know your thoughts if you think we can tweak it to your needs. Eventually, we’re planning to allow users to enter their own host data if they’d like, as well.